CODEWITHSUNDEEP
internet-explorercompatibilityinternet-explorer-10
abtecas
abtecas

Reputation: 269

Would Compatibility View be a reliable testing environment for <IE10

I'm wondering if IE's compatibility view would be reliable to check how pages would render in browsers earlier than 10, specifically 9, and 8. I'm only afforded one version of IE (currently 8) but I'm asking my IT department to install 10 so that I can possibly code for 10, 9, and 8, rather than being set for 8 and only blindly coding for 9 and 10.

The problem currently exists when I get e-mails saying it doesn't work in 9 and/or 10, and I have absolutely no way of testing except for having a contact on the outside check and recheck and send me screen shots (annoying on both of our parts).

Thanks for advising.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 207

Answers (1)

Spudley
Spudley

Reputation: 168655

I'm wondering if IE's compatibility view would be reliable to check how pages would render in browsers earlier than 10

No. Very explicitly, it is not reliable for this purpose.

You can get away with it up to a point, but there are a significant number of bugs and other issues in the various compatibility modes which mean that what you see in compat mode is very likely to differ from what you'd see in a real copy of the earlier IE versions.

The recommended alternative solution is to use a VM for each IE version. Microsoft does actually provide these VMs free for testing purposes; you can download them from http://modern.ie/

Another option is a service like http://BrowserStack.com/. This is basically an online equivalent of downloading your own IE VMs. They give you a VM running in your browser window. It's a really useful service, but is commercial, so you'd need to pay for it if you want to use it in the long term. But for short-term testing, Microsoft have done a deal with them to give away a free 3-month subscription, which you can also get from http://modern.ie/.

Upvotes: 1

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